Memento Mori - A Catalog of Photography by Melissa T. Hall and Poetry by Missy Brownson
Publication Date: May 15, 2021
10” x 8”, 32 pages
Paperback
...mortality curled
at your feet, purring
but poised.
Published in conjunction with their spring 2021 exhibition at the Lexington (KY) Art League Loudoun House Galleries, this catalog documents a unique creative symbiosis between artist Melissa T. Hall and poet Missy Brownson.
To describe Hall as a photographer scarcely does justice to the expanse of her artistic vision. Her images involve the scouting of locations (most often marginal and abandoned spaces), use of models and carefully curated props during extended photo shoots, digital manipulation, and (in the exhibited final works) painting and encaustic layering over the photographic prints. The results are distinctive, and often disturbing, dream-like compositions.
As a poet, Missy Brownson responds to Hall's works by immersing herself in these dream-worlds, making herself a part of that creation and writing from within that perspective. Her accompanying poems do not seek to describe the art, but to expand on it, setting up a dialog of word and image that makes each richer.
Melissa T. Hall is a narrative photographer/artist based in Lexington, Kentucky. Feeling something was missing after starting a career in computer science, she returned to school in Florida to study studio art and photography. Hall thrives on setting up elaborate photo shoots in dilapidated, abandoned locations. She employs models, vintage clothing, and various props to craft her stories. Her work is completed by combining her photography with encaustic medium and oil paint. Hall’s motivation is to expose the beauty in the midst of ruin.
Poet Missy Brownson resides in Georgetown, Kentucky, and works as a director at a Frankfort-based educational organization. Her chapbook, Hush Candy, was published by Broadstone Books in 2018. Brownson, a graduate of Earlham College and participant in the MFA program at Murray State University, didn’t begin writing poetry in earnest until 2007 when she returned to her hometown of Owensboro, where she reconnected with creative writing legend David Bartholomy and met poet Kelly Moffett. Brownson’s work reflects her obsessions with sound and exploring the complexity of women’s lived experiences.
Hall and Brownson met in 2018 when Brownson was invited to do a reading at an opening of Hall’s work at the Arts Alliance Southern Indiana. The organizer of the event, a former colleague of Brownson’s, had not read her work, but had a hunch that it would fit - and it certainly did. From the subjects in their work, and their treatment of subjects, a dark twist, it was clear that these two artists were kindred. Emails were exchanged, meetings were held, a partnership was formed. From the first ‘test run’ of Brownson writing a poem inspired by one of Hall’s images, it was clear that an ekphrastic experiment was destined to occur. Memento Mori is the first result of this experiment.
MEMENTO MORI ARTIST STATEMENT
Memento Mori, Latin for remember you will die, is the third series of work fueled by my substantial brush with mortality. The first series, Aggressively Fragile chronicled my fight with cancer. The second series, Aftermath,displayed themes a little more removed from the epicenter of my diagnosis. After four years in remission, Memento Mori is not a meditation on death, but an encouragement or reminder to embrace your mortality and allow that knowledge to motivate you to fully live each day.
Melissa T. Hall
POETRY ARTIST STATEMENT
This ekphrastic experiment has been a welcome challenge. The past pandemic year has been a challenging one for all of us; I have found it to be challenging personally, professionally and creatively. Melissa’s evocative images have provided a flood of inspiration; I have written more over the past three months than I have in the past three years.
The poems inspired by Memento Mori images are reflective of other poems I’ve written, form-wise. My process for writing these entailed what I refer to as “internalizing the image,” in which I connect with the image, relating it either to my own experiences and/or the experiences of other women. It is from this empathetic perspective that I have written these poems.
Missy Brownson